The Debt AU
by not-a-cop
Summary: A debt can change you, it can change the way you think, the way you act, It can even push you into being the hero you were meant to be. Think vigilante/loosely grounded AU(yes there is still magic and robots). Rated T for blood and death.


**Hey Hey guys! So haha super duper upper ruper duper super sorry for not updating my other fic "Shadow of the future"! But im kinda having a writers block with it and I thought writing an au might help me get over it.(also I have work, yes an actual job, stuff coming up sooo, yeah been kinda busy)**

 **This was an old au I had in my drafts and thought I'd try and finish it**

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"Okay, go go go!" The ninja said helping the firemen escort the last kid in the gym out of the currently on fire wing of the school. Just as the ninja was about to make a break for the door himself, debris from the room collapsed and blocked his exit. The ninja looked closely at the debris and noticed that they were cut down, they didn't collapse, and this was all planned.

"Should have known this was a trap, I will admit though, pretty good one" The ninja yelled, hoping to get his assailant out in the open.

A boy with brown hair that reached his lower back came out of the shadows, the boys' shiny brown hair was tied in a long braid meaning he didn't want it to get in the way if he were to do anything physical. He wore a simple black trench coat, a black turtleneck, black trouser and black boots. His eyes showed nothing but concentration and skill, he was focused like a predator sizing up his prey, calculating the best way to take him down.

The ninja was surprised by his enemy's appearance, 'It's just a kid?' he thought to himself. But the ninja couldn't afford to take any chances and underestimate this boy. This boy had set up a trap that forced the ninja into a zero escape situation.

"Who sent you? McFist?" The ninja inquired brandishing his sword, unsure of his foes intent, clearly ill intent but he needed to know who and why.

"No, I don't work for him" the brown hair boy replied, opening his belt buckle to reveal a blue button. The boy pressed said button and a glowing blue holographic wireframe grew from it and covered his body, suddenly as if from nowhere the wireframe transformed into a militarized suit of slick armour, it looked both sturdy and impenetrable but also light and flexible, but he wore no mask exposing his face. "I work for an organization called **Janus** , and I was made to destroy you"

The ninja's mind was sent into a flurry of questions. 'Janus? This kid was _made_ to destroy me?' however he had no further time to dwell on these question as the brown haired boy attacked with speed that rivalled the ninjas.

As the boy flung his fist in spear position he aimed for the ninja's throat, the ninja however parried with his sword as the boys' fist and the ninja's sword scrapped together.

"Who are you kid?!" The ninja demanded.

The brown haired boy's mind went back to his training days where he was asked a similar question.

" _Who do you fight for?" A man in an expensive looking black business suit asked._

" _The secret organization known as Janus" The brown hair boy replied while decapitating a training robot that attempted to attack him. Another robot lunged at the boy as he barely dodged._

" _Why do you fight for Janus?" The man asked again._

" _To further Janus's goals, for I will obey any command given to me by Janus" The brown haired boy said digging his fist into the training bots chest and ripping out its powercore._

Back to present time the ninja flung a couple of electro balls which the brown haired boy caught. The ninja was expecting the boy to be shocked but he was not expecting the balls to go off in the boys hand be completely ineffective.

The brown haired boy dropped the powerless balls and dashed to the ninja once again. The ninja met him with equal amount of ferocity. The two warriors engaged into a flurry of hand to hand combat. Parrying, blocking, dodging and striking, both were evenly matched.

'Whoa, this kid is good!' the ninja thought to himself. The ninja was about to swing a right but almost as if predicted the brown haired boy caught it and flipped the ninja, to which the ninja on his back, attempted to knock the boy down with a leg sweep, the boy fell backwards on purpose and immediately did a kick up to get back on his feet.

The ninja threw down a ninja flash, temporarily blinding the brown haired boy and allowing the ninja to put some distance between them

"Not bad kid" The ninja said panting, exhaustion and the heat from the burning building they were in getting to him. "This Janus place must have killer teachers"

The brown haired boy said nothing as both parties charged at each other again. It was true though the brown haired boy had great training, preparing him for this day.

 _The brown haired boy sat at a desk multiple notebooks open around him. In front of him we're multiple T.V screen showing videos of the ninja doing battle with robots and monsters. Somehow the brown haired boy was able to keep up with all these images, learning all of the ninja's moves and fighting styles, coming up with counter attacks and contingencies._

" _Are you learning" The man in the suit asked, not as much as a question, more of an order._

" _I am" The boy replied._

" _Good" The man said. "You're almost ready"_

POW the boy socked the ninja right in the face. The ninja stumbled back, as he was distracted the boy threw down a couple of metallic disks at the ninjas feet, the disks emitted high voltage electricity the electrocuted the ninja. The ninja screamed in pain paralyzed by the current going through his body, unable to move the boy had the perfect chance to end this. From the boys wrist gauntlet a small blade emerged above his fist. The boy leaped at the ninja, ready to strike, aiming for the neck.

 _The boy trained all day, fortunately his instructors and the man in the suit knew that having him do nothing but train would break him and make him resent them, so they gave him a 10 minute break. The boy went to the roof of his training facility, even the roof was fenced off in a metal box fence, and they didn't want him to escape now did they? Even though he didn't know where their training facility was, which could be anywhere on the earth, he still loved being out here and being able to see the sky, he knew this may be the last time he ever gets to see the sky, because after he completes his mission of destroying the ninja, who knew what fate they had planned for him afterwards, what if they simply had no more use if he succeeded and just got rid of him? It did not matter, it was what he was made to do, from the moment they picked him up from the streets as a child, ever since then he was bred and prepared to complete his mission, destroy the ninja. No matter the cost he had to destroy the ninja, he did not know why Janus wanted the ninja dead, nor did he have the right to ask, it was just what he was made to do. No mercy, not emotion, kill the ninja at any cost, no matter what or who he had to remove as well, kill the ninja, no matter what._

 _*chirp* His head snapped around looking for the source of the noise. There he saw a bird trapped in a small hole in the fence, it wriggled and thrashed unable to free itself. In many ways the bird reminded the boy of his mission to destroy the ninja, his instructors had told him many time that how with their training he would best and trap the ninja, how he would corner the ninja like a frail animal, unable to escape the clutches of his claws. He reached out to the bird, just like this bird the ninja would be helpless at the boys hand, it would be so easy to kill this bird and the ninja._

 _But instead of killing the bird, he helped it get unstuck, then he set it free._

The boys' blade stopped inches from the ninja's neck. The electricitythat paralyzed the ninja ceased and the ninja took the opportunity to uppercut the brown haired boy giving sending him away, thus giving some distance between the two.

The ninja was quite confused as to why the boy didn't finish him off then and there, and by the look on the boy's face he was just as confused.

The boy was baffled by his own actions why didn't he kill the ninja? He had the perfect opportunity right there. How could this have happened, all his training prepared him for this and yet he had stopped himself subconsciously. A big chunk of the burning roof fell from above, startling both boys. Clearly the place wasn't gonna last much longer, so both warriors reached the conclusion that they had to finish this quickly.

"Help…" The ninja heard a faint voice. He activated his super senses and found the source, it was a boy collapsed under some rubble. The ninja dashed to where the voice was.

The brown haired boy thinking this was an attack, shot a couple of throwing stars that ejected from his wrist compartments. He was expecting that the ninja would at least attempt to dodge, so he would caught off guard once again when the ninja just charged through the blades that cut him, one even lodged itself into his arm but he paid no mind, his attention being on something else. The ninja rushed over to a pile of debris and began digging through it until he pulled out a short heavy boy with bright orange hair.

"Quick, help me get this kid out!" The ninja said slinging the innocent civilians arm around his shoulder.

The boy had a look that was a mixture of both confusion and indignation. The ninja ignored it and continued dragging the boy around looking for an exit.

"Are-are you serious?" The brown haired boy asked incredulously, his stoic and emotionless persona he was keeping up the entire fight falling apart. "Why would you ask me, the guy trying to kill you for help?"

"That I am" The ninja replied, continuing to look for an exit. His face lit up when he noticed a small cracked hole at the side of the gym. "I mean…You _could_ attack me right now if you really wanted too…It's your choice….."

The brown haired boy got into a stance, ready to strike at the ninja while his back was turned. HE bit his lip, finding his body unable to attack, as if letting his one chance slip up the first time broke him, damaged him somehow. He sighed and walked up beside them and put the orange haired boys other arm around his shoulder and helped drag the boy towards their only exit, what possessed him to do this he himself did not know.

Despite the mask the brown haired boy was able to tell that the ninja was beaming at him. A smile of pride that filled the boy with something, something he had never felt at Janus before, it felt weird, but not a bad kind of weird.

"How'd…how'd you know I wasn't gonna attack you? I wasn't even sure I wasn't gonna attack you" The brown haired boy asked.

"You seemed like a good person" The ninja replied.

"I'm not a person" The boy seethed, then looked downcast. "I'm a weapon, that's all I am"

" .JUICE. that is messed up! Who taught you that?" The ninja said is a disgusted voice.

"Janus, and it's the truth" The brown haired boy replied. "I'm a weapon they created to destroy you, and that's it, no emotions no mercy not a person, a weapon"

"Hmmm weird then, because a weapon wouldn't have cared if any civilians got hurt, yet you waited until I finished helping get the last civilian out of the building before revealing yourself" The ninja countered smugly. "A weapon definitely wouldn't be helping his target haul this kid to safety"

The brown haired boy, turned away embarrassed and unable to rebut these claims.

"And a weapon definitely wouldn't spare his target" The ninja said, his eyes softening. "All I'm saying is, no one controls you, you are your own person, and a pretty good one at that. These Janus guys they sound super manipulative and controlling, but you can't let anyone control you, you always have to have a choice"

"Eve-even if I did run away from Janus…where would I go? I have no family, no home, I have nothing" The brown haired boy said sadly.

"…..Then stay with me"

"What?"

"Do it! Stay with me, I can convince my parents to let you stay with us, I'm sure I can tell em its some school thing or I could just tell them the truth, that you're homeless, I'm sure they'd understand. I mean I have a _really_ nosy sister who is honkin annoying, but she's bearable"

"I-I-I couldn't….could I?"

"Yeah dude! Plus your mad skills plus my mad skills equals the brucest team of ninjas in existence! Like we'd make the perfect duo, plus who doesn't want a sidekick?"

For the first time in a long time, boy felt…happy, was the only way to describe it. He had never met anyone who treated him as a person, much less anyone this kind. This nearly brought tears to his eyes, but he fought them back. "Thank yo—"

*groan* the boy slumped between them began to stir.

"Looks like our ride along waking up eh?" The ninja said in an upbeat tone. "Hey uh whats your name again um-Weinerman? you up yet?"

"Ughhhh, ninja? My head is killin me" The Weinerman boy said. He stared pointedly at the other boy helping him. "Who's this guy?"

"We'll he's the guy who set this place on fire…" The ninja clarified.

"Sorry" The boy apologized.

"It was a trap…."

"Again sorry"

"To try and kill me…."

"Once again I am very sorry"

"But turns out he's not a bad guy, he's helping me get you out of here"

"I can stress this enough, I am sorr-Oh, I mean thanks"

Howard glared suspiciously at the boy. The kind of glare that made the boy sweat. The as soon as it came the glare left and changed to a passive look. "Okay I trust ya"

"What just like that?" The brown haired boy inquired suspiciously.

"Yeah well, if the ninja trusts you then anybody'll trust you" Howard replied.

The ninja chuckled. He looked up ahead and noticed how close they were to the exit. "We're almost home free guys"

In a lot of ways the exit to freedom from this burning building, was also the brown haired boys' entrance to his own freedom. A freedom he owed to the ninja.

"I never got to say thank you…so thank you" The boy said sincerely to the ninja.

"No big deal" The ninja smiled. "I just wanted you to have—"

He was cut off when he noticed the ceiling directly above them collapse and fall at breathe taking speed. As if in slow motion and without a thought, the ninja let go of Howard and shoved Howard and the brown haired boy out of the way with all his might, pushing them just a few tiny inches out of fatal harm's way, the ninja on the other hand was not so lucky.

An iron pole sticking out of the chunk of roof that fell on him impaled his straight through the chest. The ninja coughed out blood, the boy mouths were agape, to paralyzed from shock. He looked over to Howard who got hit by a piece of falling debris and was knocked out.

"Y-you saved us…you saved me" The brown haired boy said shaking violently.

"Of course I did" The ninja said choking out blood. "A ninja's job is to save…people"

The brown haired boy bit his lip, tears falling out of his eyes. "I-I'm so sorry…this is all my fault"

"No-no, this wasn't your fault kid" The ninja said the light in his eyes dimming. "Do me a favour now…I need you to take the Weinerman kid and get him out of here, then I need you to leave all this Janus stuff…behind"

The boys' mouth quivered unable to answer, his uncontrollable tears and feelings of despair and guilt taking control. He simply nodded instead.

"Good…" The ninja wheezed. "I-I don't think we ever properly introduced ourselves. I'm Tommy Kang…what's your name?"

" _Before we send you out on the mission you have been preparing for you entire life. We have one more question for you..." The man in the suit asked. "Who are you"_

 _The brown haired boy inhaled, then exhaled emotionlessly. "I am no one, nor do I have a name. I was made with a single purpose and that purpose defines me and what I am. Lost is my emotions, identity and even the name I once had. I am Janus's tool. I am a weapon"_

"My name…I'm Randy…Randy Cunningham" The boy said, the sound of his own name having a foreign sound to it due to him not using it anymore. But for some reason just saying it felt liberating.

Tommy smiled underneath his mask. "Good, now get out of here"

Randy stared at him with his pained expression one more time then nodded and lifted Howard onto his back. He ran as fast as he could not daring to look back.

"….And remember it's always your choice…"

 **~Line Break~**

Howard shot up as he awoke, looking around, he was just outside on the dirt meters away from a burning wreckage which he deduced was the gym or what was left of it.

"Ninja?" He called out, looking for anyone to explain what happened.

"He didn't make it…." Howard looked for the source of the voice and found the brown haired sitting a little down the grass ahead of him. "He died"

Howards mind was in total shock. H-how could the ninja die? That wasn't possible. His mind went from denial to anger at who was responsible for this. Which led him to the person who set the place on fire in the first place. He marched up to the kid anger in every step, then he picked up the brown haired boy by the collar ready to yell the guy's head off. That was until he saw the kid crying his eyes out.

He just dropped the kid, no words were said as Howard sat next to him.

"Quite the mess you've made here…" Both boys turned quickly to see a man in a big cowboy hat approach them.

"Who the juice are you supposed to be?" Howard questioned.

"Well my day job is your schools bus driver. But my volunteer work is, well, let's just say I work for the ninja"

'Made sense' Randy supposed. There were multiple theories of the ninja at Janus one being that the ninja wasn't the same person for 800 yrs. That led them to believe that someone had to manage the candidates, and it was possible the ninja did not work alone.

"*sigh*, looks like now this town has nothing defending it from the forces of darkness…seeing as how the mask was destroyed in the fire" The cowboy man continued.

"So the town'll be defenceless forever?" Randy asked desperately.

"Not forever, I can probably salvage a piece of the mask and rebuild it" The cowboy man said, causing Randy and Howard to sigh in relief. "But I won't be able to just do it. Gonna take a while to fix the mask, so we better hope and pray nothing evil happens, because if it does we're shoobed without a guardian"

Randy stared at the ground for a solid minute. This was his fault and he had to take responsibility for it.

"I'll do it…" Randy said quietly.

"What?" The cowboy man said indignantly.

"O-M-Genius!" Howard exclaimed. "You've got the moves and everything! You can totally do it…plus you kinda owe it to the ninja for ya know…" He gestured to the burning wreckage.

"Look you can't—"The cowboy man said.

"And you can't stop me. The ninja said I had a choice, so I'm choosing to do this whether you want me to or not" Randy said defiance in his voice.

The cowboy man looked pensively at him for a sec then sighed. "Fine, I'm not going to get in your way…but other than that you're on your own kid."

"Thank you" Randy said. "I-I'll do my best"

"Don't make me regret this" The cowboy man said as he turned to leave.

"Oh this is so the cheese!" Howard exclaimed in joy. "I know who the new ninja is! I'm going to tell everybody!"

"You can't tell anybody" Randy replied.

"That stinks"

"Plus I'm not even gonna be the new ninja…I'm a temp. At best, and…I don't think I deserve to be the ninja, so I have to be something else"

"Still pretty bruce thoug—What are you doing?" Howard asked as Randy took out a blade, closed his eyes and cut off his hair from below the end of his neck. He let the brown tail of hair fall.

Randy opened his eyes with determination, He had a new mission now. And this time we was gonna do it right.

 **~Line Break~**

The cowboy guy retrieved the Ninjanomicon and the mask from the wreckage and was walking home, the mask being perfectly fine after all. The nomicon buzzed angrily.

"Well how was I supposed to know the mask was gonna be okay after being set on fire?" He defended against the book. To which it buzzed and glowed again.

"Why did I let that guy go and tell him he could protect the town for the ninja? Call it a hunch, I guess. I felt like..I don't know. I want to see how this pans out"

 **~Line Break~**

"You are testing our patience Dr Knight, you're blunder has cost us dearly" A man on a chair whose body was covered in shadows said to the man in the suit from Randy's flashbacks.

The man from Randy's flashbacks now known as Dr Knight was sitting in a chair at the center of a circle of chairs all occupied by other figures all covered in shadows as to conceal their identities. Dr Knight was an adult man in a black suit with dark black hair and a small beard. He looked around him emotionless.

"Forgive me council men. I take full responsibility for my slight oversight" Dr Knight said calmly.

"Slight oversight?! This was a terrible folly at your hands!" One of the council men said angrily. "Not only did you pay no heed our advice that _he_ was not ready to battle the ninja, you also completely forgot to install a tracking chip in his neck! He could be anywhere around the world at this moment!"

"Again terribly sorry" Dr Knight apologized with a stoic expression.

"And worst of all, by losing that boy, we have lost _The Key_ " Another councilmen said harshly. "How could you be so idiotic as to lose something so fundamental to our goals?!"

"All my resources are being poured into finding the boy now council men. All projects will be halted so as to have the search and retrieval of the boy and _The Key_ our top priority" Dr Knight explained.

"If you and you're work were not also fundamental to our goals, you would already be dead. Be thankful of that" One of the councilmen said. "This meeting is adjourned. And Knight….You have an exceptional intellect but not unreplaceable. Dismissed"

The councilmen and their chairs disappeared, having been holograms this entire time, only Dr Knight remained. He smirked arrogantly to himself. Those fools did not realize having the boy escape was intended. For Dr Knight had his own plans, and soon….He would reclaim all that he had lost.

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 **So there ya have it haha what ya think?**

 **IDK if I'll ever continue this, lets leave it up to fate for now :3**

 **P.S If i ever do, it'll probably be randyxheidi cuz i haven't done that in a whileeeee,(but it'll be like a side plot i guess)**


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